Last weekend I found myself meditating over the concept of perseverance. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, to persevere in something means to persist in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement. Ways to persist in an undertaking? There are a variety of them, of course. To be constant in something implies, a priori, the existence of an objective to accomplish. For example, there are people who can be perseverant in buying the lottery and easily spend 300 Euros each month by playing with the same number, in case they win. (Objective: To become rich overnight in order to live better.) Others can be perseverant in keeping their jobs at all cost, even when bad humor and a lot of stress are all they get in return because, in the end, they have a secured salary. (Objective: To lead a financially stable life.) And yet a few others may think that housing today is not affordable for the young, and persevere in extending their lives living in their parents’ house because, instead of paying a rent, it is better to wait until they have a mortgage to pay. (Objective: To buy a house before living in a rented place.)

Nevertheless, I have a feeling that such examples are only contributing to a single, one-dimensional aspect with regards to perseverance, for we are only counting on the prospects of things based on the time that we are willing to invest to carry out a repetitive action (to buy the lottery every month, to go to work as a routine, or to save money little by little to gather the necessary amount for the down payment of a house). In Morning Glory, an American comedy by Roger Michell, I had the pleasant surprise of discovering a different perspective on the issue. In the movie, a young TV producer is hired to revitalize a morning magazine whose cancellation is fast approaching. With an academic record that is not her best letter of introduction and an excessive passion for her work that is interpreted as pure naïveté by her superiors and work team, what, then, is it that this woman does in order to achieve personal and collective success?

The answer is in the combination of three qualities that each and every one of us has at our disposal to develop: perseverance, flexibility, and creativity. Each component contributes to the empowerment and growth of this triangle, thus creating a more dynamic and multidimensional relationship to achieve our goals in the short-, mid-, or long- term. Within perseverance lies the importance of flexibility, which allows us to have a greater tolerance against frustration when things do not come out as expected. Likewise, it is our creativity that endows our purpose with life, for it is important to create new tools, paths, methods, perspectives, and ways of communicating with the outside world when we notice that something is blocking our way, and to not die in the attempt to achieve what we really want for ourselves and/or others.

Do I consider myself as someone who is perseverant? Flexible? Creative? In what aspects of my life am I putting these qualities into practice? Making very clear what it is that we want to achieve at different points in our lives in order to apply the triangle of perseverance, flexibility, and creativity is something that all of us should put into practice. Age, cultural environment, money, or educational background are factors that are simply irrelevant; the necessary ingredients for personal growth are already within our human nature.